Thursday, April 08, 2010

Pediatricians Say 'Safe Schools' Don't Promote Homosexuality

A professional organization for pediatricians has dispatched letters to thousands of school superintendents across the United States with a warning that promoting – or "affirming" – the homosexual lifestyle to young children can damage them.

The letter was sent just days ago by the American College of Pediatricians, a nonprofit organization funded by members and donors, to school superintendents that tells them plainly, "It is not the school's role to diagnose and attempt to treat any student's medical condition, and certainly not a school's role to 'affirm' a student's perceived personal sexual orientation."

Further, schools can create a "life of unnecessary pain and suffering" for a child when they reinforce a behavior chosen out of a child's "confusion."

"Even when motivated by noble intentions, schools can ironically play a detrimental role if they reinforce this disorder," said the letter, signed by Dr. Tom Benton, the organization's president.

The group also has created a website called Facts About Youth as a resource for school officials to obtain the facts from a "non-political, non-religious channel."

"Most alarmingly," the College of Pediatricians website said, "the recommendations offered will place young people at increased risk of grave psychological, emotional, and physical harm."

The "Facts" website addresses the science behind the "development of non-heterosexual attractions and gender confusion in youth" as well as the school's proper role with students who has "sexual orientation and gender confusion issues."

"Rigorous studies demonstrate that most adolescents who initially experience same-sex attraction, or are sexually confused, no longer experience such attractions by age 25," the letter to schools said. "In one study, as many as 26 percent of 12-year-olds reported being uncertain of their sexual orientation, yet only 2-3 percent of adults actually identify themselves as homosexual."

Educators should take note, then, that "the majority of sexually questioning youth ultimately adopt a heterosexual identity," the letter explains.